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Is this a weird subject combination? {USA universities}


mri

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Hello people!

I am starting the IB journey in a month and still need to decide on my subject combination.
Intended Major: Economics with an International Development/Global Poverty/Affairs track.
My current subject combo: Maths HL, Economics HL, Biology HL; Global Politics SL, English Lang&Lit SL and Spanish AB Initio 

I am confused over Biology HL Vs Physics HL. I think I would be having a lot of quant work already (bc Econ + Maths HL) and Bio HL would possibly balance that out because it primarily involves memorizations and as far as academic interests are concerned, I love the subject and have done a few independent research projects in Bio-engineering. 
Moreover, I am planning to take Global Politics as HL (I would end up having 4 HLs) as we have a combined class for both SL/HL students.

I wish to know if this combination would be too weird as most of the people I know generally take Chem HL/SL along with Bio HL. But most of them are prospective Bio/Medicine majors.

Edited by mri
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No. Besides, I'm not exactly sure why you should care about the combination being "weird" -- if anything, having diverse interests is an advantage. Math and Econ make a lot of sense in terms of your uni plans (as does Global Politics) and I can't see how IB physics would be any better than bio. If you like bio better, go for bio. 

Btw, IB physics isn't particularly quantitative. You just need to know a bunch of formulas and how to plug values into them. 

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Your combination isn't weird in the slightest. What'll be looked upon as "interesting," if anything, is Global Politics -- my school offers it, but very few others do. It's good for your intended major and it won't affect your college applications negatively, but note that it is quite new.

In fact, the only part of your IB schedule that may hinder your apps is Biology HL because US universities like seeing Physics on a transcript. Decide based on what you love and what colleges require, though -- don't do it based on how much quantitative work you'll get. Economics in IB isn't very quantitative, and Physics is mostly conceptual (yeah there's math, but it's basic. The concepts provide the real substance).

US universities typically don't make you choose a major until your third year of university, so they won't really care whether you do or don't take Chemistry with Biology or any of that.

I would take Physics HL; but if you like Biology a lot, then take it. Make sure the colleges you're applying to don't require Physics, though.

Edited by lm1914
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